38 'FORAGE CROPS IN NEBRASKA. 



Although Agropyron repens, known as quack-grass, quitch-grass, 

 and couch-grass, is a pestiferous weed in the Eastern States, yet for 

 Nebraska it shows many qualities which recommend it as a hay grass. 

 The grass is nutritious, palatable, drought resistant, and thickens up 

 readily to form a good stand. It is true that it may tend to spread 

 where it becomes established, but in the semiarid regions such a quality 

 in an otherwise desirable grass would be readily overlooked. Four 

 years' testing of this grass upon the station plots shows that it recov- 

 ered easily from the drought of 1901 and formed a good growth of ha} T 

 in 1902 and 1903. 



Slender wheat-grass {Agropyron ten e rum) is a native of the North- 

 western States from western Nebraska to Canada and westward. This 

 has been recognized in the region to the north of Nebraska as a valu- 

 able wild grass and has already been brought into cultivation, so that 

 the seed can be obtained of several seedsmen in the Northwest. It 

 resembles A. ocddentale in many respects, but differs in the important 

 fact that it is a bunch grass, and does not spread by creeping root- 

 stocks. Like the other wheat-grasses, the seed habits are good, and it 

 gives promise of meeting the requirements of a hay grass for the 

 Northwest. 



One plot at the Nebraska Station, sown in 1S9T, was apparently 

 much injured by the drought of 1901, but the following spring it 

 quickly recovered and produced a thick stand of excellent hay. 

 Another plot, one-fifth acre in size, sown in 1901, had a similar his- 

 tory, but it was resown in the spring of 1902, produced a good stand, 

 and gave a cutting of hay on July 23 of -157 pounds, or at the rate of 

 2285 pounds to the acre. 



Grasses and Legumes of Less Importance. 



Big ohiestem (Andropogon furcatus). — This is one of the tall grasses 

 common over the prairie region and forms, probably, the most valua- 

 ble constituent of native hay produced in eastern Kansas, eastern 

 Nebraska, and Iowa. It is usually called bluestem, or bluejoint, and 

 is characterized hy having the seed in crowfoot clusters at the top of 

 the stem, by which it may be distinguished from the bluejoint of 

 Colorado, which is a wheat-grass, and from the bluejoint of Minnesota, 

 which is a grass of low grounds rather than prairies. The station 

 plot gave rather unsatisfactory results on account of the poor stand 

 obtained, but the bunches that were produced grew well. Although 

 a valuable grass, the seed habits are such that it is not likely to adapt 

 itself to cultivation. The seed is produced in small quantity, is of 

 uncertain vitality, and the seed stalks vary so in height that it is not 

 readily harvested. 



The allied A. scoparius, which is another important native hay grass, 

 called little bluestem. or. on the plains. " bunch-grass," has not been 



